Valentine's Hijinks
by Midnight Starfire
Summary: The marauders make a pact to get their dream girls by Valentine's Day & they will do whatever is necessary! Little do they know that two other people have heard their pact.....(COMPLETE)
1. Prologue

  


Valentines' Hijinks 

  


By Lady*Wildfire*Star

Rated :PG-13, subject to change.

Author's Notes: I'm not sure if this idea has been used or not before. If so, I'm sorry. I'm relatively new to fanfiction as far as writing goes. James and Lily stories are personally my favorite so I thought I would try this! Bear with me people! So I didn't have to create all kinds of new characters I chose to make certain ones from the Order of the Phoenix go to school with the Marauders.

Please review and NO FLAMES!

This contains, Order of the Phoenix Spoilers(somewhat)....in case there is anyone out there who has not yet read the fifth Harry Potter book!

***DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING ABOUT HARRY POTTER!! ***

Summary: James, Remus and Sirius decide that by Valentines' Day they will have their dream girls, and they will do whatever it takes to get them. Even if it means countless detentions, embarrassment, or even manipulation. Little do they know that someone else heard their pact and is planning on turning the tables...

  


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PROLOGUE

Monday, January 31st

The bright sunlight beamed in through a dusty glass window, and went straight into the blue green eyes of a boy with light brown hair that had flecks of grey in it. He always looked tired no matter how rested he was, and was greying early, a direct result from the changes he endures because of the full moon. The boy was Remus Lupin, who sat in the Gryffindor common room waiting for his two best friends and their tag -along. James Potter, who had probably overslept as always, Sirius Black who always wanted his hair to be perfect, and Peter Pettigrew who nobody really liked anyways so they forgot to wake up him. Remus moved into a chair closer to the fire, that wasn't close to a window, so he could not be blinded by sunlight. He was going over his notes for today's History of Magic test when Sirius Black came charging into the common room. Sirius Black had raven black haired that fell gracefully into his big dark blue eyes, and was considered to be one of the best looking guys in school. He had always been one to draw attention and make dramatic entrances, so of course he was nice and loud.

"Hey Remus!! I have got to tell you something!!" yelled Sirius as he hurried over to the overstuffed armchair where Remus sat. Several people stopped their conversations to watch Sirius talk to Remus. Remus looked up from his notes and removed his reading glasses. 

"Remus! James said that Frank said that Monica said that Lena said that Lisa said she overheard Emmeline Vance telling Lily Evans that she thinks I'm kinda cute on the way to Advanced Potions yesterday" said Sirius with a hopeful look on his handsome face.

Remus stared at his friend, "Oh not this again Sirius. We discussed this. Emmeline hates you and Lily hates James. I thought we were moving on from this whole obsession?"

Sirius narrowed those dark blue crystal eyes, "While James might be obsessed with Lily, I assure you that I'm not obsessed with Emmeline. I just enjoy a challenge , mate. James is plain loony anyways, we all know that."

Remus smiled, "Keeping telling yourself that Padfoot."

Then another boy emerged into the common room. The boy was rather short, had dark brown almost black hair, glasses and soft hazel eyes. James Potter walked straight over to his friends with a tired look on his face. 

"Morning, Padfoot, Moony", he said as he yawned.

Sirius nodded and Remus said good morning , then he asked. "I suppose we better go to the Great Hall , eh?"

And with that they were off . As they walked Remus asked, "Where's Peter?"

Upstairs in the Marauders's(as they liked to call themselves) room Peter had fallen asleep again and was snoring louder than a train. He was not likely to wake up until most of their classes were over. 

Once in the Great Hall, the boys were seated next to each other and eating. Sirius was talking to James about quidditch in between stuffing his face with bacon and eggs. Remus was sitting by them, next to Frank Longbottom, a friend of theirs and was comparing notes for the test. In walked four of the most beautiful girls in all of Hogwarts. The four boys stopped as Lily, Emmeline , Hestia, and Alice sat down at the Gryffindor table and began to eat breakfast. All four boys had a crush on the four girls, but three of the girls did not return the boys' feelings. James Potter was the most outwardly spoken about his feelings for Lily Evans. He had asked her out each year of school (them being in the seventh year so that makes six because had not tried yet this year), and each year she rudely turned him down. He had liked Lily since the moment he ran into her and knocked her down on the train to Hogwarts as a first year. Lily Evans had long dark red hair and piercing green eyes and was very well liked by almost every house, with the exception of Slytherin. Emmeline Vance was a platinum haired blue eyed bubbly witch, that most people considered funny but rather snotty. And then there was Hestia Jones, superbly intelligent and rather mysterious. Hestia had black hair, rosy cheeks, and bright hazel eyes. The last of the four wasn't considered as pretty as the other girls, and she was quite clumsy, but very well known because of her quidditch skills. Alice Kensington(made up last name because it didn't say what her last name was before she got married to Frank), who had medium length light brown hair and big chocolate colored eyes. And it was obvious that Alice liked Frank back. The marauders(with the exception of Peter who was still sleeping) and Frank watched the girls. Without saying goodbye to his friends , Frank Longbottom, got up and went over to sit by Alice. Frank began making friendly conversation with all four girls and Sirius watched him jealously.

"Why can't we do that? Every girl in school wants me, umm I mean us and the ones we want, don't want us" , Sirius spat as if the words "don't want us" was a disgusting heinous crime.

Remus looked up from his notes, "Maybe try not pulling pranks on them."

"You were involved too!" retaliated Sirius.

"So what! I'm Remus Lupin , I'm the sensible, nice one!"

"But- " Sirius began to argue back, but was silenced by an annoyed look from James that clearly meant drop it.

  


Sirius gave a frustrated sigh. James took a bite of his bacon and looked over towards the girls. "I have an idea." , he said with a mischievous smile. "You know that Valentine's Ball that Dumbledore announced a couple days ago. Well let's say we get them to go with us."

Remus snorted, "You don't have that much money , James."

James rolled his hazel eyes at Remus' comment. "No Remus , I'm serious. I think- "

Sirius cut James off at this, "No ! I am!" he exclaimed.

James turned to Sirius, "It's getting old Padfoot. It's getting really old." Sirius just glared at him.

Silence.

"Remus I think that the reason were are not dating those girls is simply because we haven't tried hard enough. We haven't tried conventional methods," stated James.

"Like bribes?" questioned Remus.

"No I mean like chocolates, flowers, poetry, all that nasty Valentine's mush," stated James.

Sirius laughed , "Sirius Black doesn't read poetry."

"I doubt you even know how to read," joked Remus. Sirius glared at Remus too.

James turned to Sirius, "Do you want Emmeline or not? You have to be willing to agree to my terms. I'm not doing this alone."

"I smell a bet coming on." said Sirius

"No! No bets! Don't you remember what happened last time you two made a bet," Remus said.

Sirius immediately put a hand up to his cheek remembering the sting that had been caused by a slap in the face. James touched his hair remembering what it was like to have been hit by a hair removal curse and being bald for three weeks. That included his eyebrows.

"Okay so no bets", said James, "We call it a pact."

"What are the stipulations", asked Remus.

"We use the methods that I said. And it must be done by Valentine's Day. We start tomorrow", responded James. Then James went on to say, "Agree?"

Sirius and Remus both said agreed at the same time.

  


Passing by to get to their house table a white-blonde haired man and a man with greasy hair had overheard the so called pact. And instantly the two of them decided to do whatever they could to destroy the Marauders's attempts, and for very good reasons....

  


- Lady*Wildfire*Star

  



	2. Chapter 1: The Plans

  


Valentines' Hijinks

  


By: Lady*Wildfire*Star

  


Disclaimer: The same as always. I do not own anything about/from Harry Potter.

Rated: PG-13 ( I might change this, I'm not sure yet. The prologue was more like PG or maybe even G. But for now it's PG-13 to be safe, because I'm not yet sure where this story will go)

  


To everyone who read this: THANK YOU!!! And to everyone who reviewed this: THANK YOU VERY MUCH! Any sort of comments/input/questions are welcome, just no flames! 

  


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Chapter 1 : The Plans

  


February 1st, Tuesday

James Harry Potter could consciously hear the sounds of three people hurrying around their dorm room, however he did not want to fully awaken. He had been dreaming again that he was going out with Lily Evans. Whenever the dream would get to a "good" part, involving Lily in black lacy lingerie James would wake up. He could hear what was going on around him more and hear Lily less.

"Wormtail, wake em up!" said the first and rather deep voice.

"No Padfoot, you do it. I'm looking for my potions' essay," responded a second squeaky voice.

"Can't you see, I'm doing my hair. It has to look just so," said the first voice. 

"It looks just so damn stupid," mumbled the second voice.

"What did you just say , Wormtail?" demanded the first voice.

"Stop it you gits, I'll do it," said yet a third voice that sounded extremely exhausted.

And then there was sudden earthquake, no wait, James felt himself being shaken. "James! James ! Get out of bed. We all over slept so we have to skip breakfast," exclaimed the third voice.

James opened his brilliant hazel eyes to see Remus Lupin standing by his side. He was about to protest getting up, thinking he would sleep all day but then he remembered what day it was. It was the first of February. Ordinarily it wouldn't mean anything special. But, yesterday, he had come up with a brainless idea. He decided that the marauders (with the exception of Peter because no one is really attracted to him anyways) would accomplish something within two weeks, that they couldn't do in seven years at Hogwarts! But, since it was a pact he made with his two best friends, he couldn't back down. Sirius would have a field day if James backed out of something, especially when it was HIS IDEA. James pulled himself out of bed and grabbed his clothes for the day to change.

  


In History of Magic.....

  


The three marauders sat together in the back of the room. Peter Pettigrew also known as Wormtail or short chubby guy who looks like he's thirty was notoriously missing, due to the fact that Sirius threw his potion's essay out the window out of anger. (And yes I'm looking for reasons to keep Peter out the story, because I DO NOT LIKE HIM). Peter was up in their room writing a new one, due tomorrow , and because his lack of brain cells it probably wouldn't get done by then. Lily Evans and Emmeline Vance had noticed the three of them sitting together around a small piece of parchment and talking in hushed voices. When the three of them were keeping to themselves and not disrupting the whole class, it usually meant trouble. They were up to something, some kind of prank.

"I wonder what they are up to?" questioned Emmeline, twirling a piece of blonde hair around her pointer finger.

"Who cares, they are all a waste of time, Em,"replied Lily.

"You guys don't think there...well...good looking?" asked Hestia who wasn't very talkative in general.

"Lemme guess, you do, right?" asked Lily.

Hestia looked up from the homework questions she was doing in the free time that the teacher gave to them. "Ahhh well, I must admit there is something about Lupin," she told them.

"Like I've said before Black is cute. But he's too conceited,"said Emmeline.

The two girls looked at Lily who was writing something down and was oblivious to the fact that her friends were waiting for her opinion. Emmeline cleared her throat, and Lily looked up. "What ?" she asked.

  


"Lils , what do you think?" said Emmeline.

Lily scratched her chin with her quill, "Potter's a prat, Sirius is arrogant, and Remus is often very strange. Ever feel like he's hiding something?" stated Lily.

"We did not ask for an analysis of their personalities, Lily" said Hestia.

"Ohhh okay, well. Potter then. Potter's the best looking in my opinion," said Lily.

Emmeline watched her with an amused look on her face. "That was quick." Lily gave her a sarcastic smile and went back to writing.

On the other side of the room....

"Okay you guys, so I think we ought to plan this out, like we do our pranks,"said James. The three of them had finished their work and were sitting around the blank piece of parchment.

"Good idea. Hey Moony, wanna write the plans down?" said Sirius to Remus.

"Why me?"retorted Remus.

"Because James can't spell to save his life and my handwriting is usually illegible,"replied Sirius.

"Fair point" said Remus as he grabbed his quill, preparing to write. "But should we really write this out, what if it happens to fall into the wrong hands?" asked Remus.

"No way that would happen, Moony. You worry too much," said Sirius.

"Famous last words," grumbled Remus.

Sirius was about to respond to that but then James said, "We need to stick with my ideas from yesterday. The whole Valentine's Day theme."

"Alright so Plan A, candy? What do all three of us give all three of them candy?" questioned Sirius seriously.

"No no , it doesn't work like that Padfoot. One of us will give one of them candy and then ask them if they want to go to the Valentine's Ball. Then another will give another one of them flowers and ask if they want to go. It would look repetitive and planned out if all three of us gave all of them candy and asked" answered James.

"Ohhhh okay," said Sirius.

Remus scrawled down candy, then asked , "Okay so whose giving one of them candy?"

"I will," said Sirius and then he went on to say, "Remus you talk to Hestia sometimes can you ask her what kind of candy Emmeline likes."

Remus sighed and nodded. It looked like he would be doing the most important work. 

"I'll do the poetry one," said James , "I heard Lily saying she enjoys poetry so that should be a piece of cake."

Remus wrote down Poetry: James. "I'll give Hestia flowers. But how do I know which ones she likes?"

"There might be some nice ones growing near the edge of the castle moat," said Sirius.

"Okay, I might as well bring her poison ivy," said Remus.

"It was just an idea, Moony" Sirius told him.

While the three of them contemplated their plans, two Slytherin males, were nearby pretending to be working. They were actually listening and laughing at the marauders' ideas. 

"Candy , flowers , and poetry?" sneered the blonde, "that's horrible!"

The greasy haired boy laughed with him, "Okay so we poison the candy, distort the poetry, and let bees loose on the flowers!"

"Great idea, why didn't I think of it?" asked the blonde. "That way everything they do will look like a prank! And then to top it off , we steal the paper and change it. After reading it Vance and Jones will be so furious they won't talk to the marauders ever again. And they will be thankful that we turned in the culprits and they will want to go with us" stated the blonde.

"Flawless plan," chimed the boy with the black greasy hair. "And I can get back at Evans while were doing this."

"Why do you want to get back at Evans?" questioned the blonde.

"For polluting this school, that damn filthy mudblood!" responded the greasy haired boy.

"Oh of course!" exclaimed the blonde.

"And," said the black haired boy darkly, "I owe her one, for what she did. If you know what I mean."

An evil smirk spread across the blonde's face in agreement.

Later on while sitting outside beneath the shade of their favorite tree the marauders were still working on their plans. Peter was missing because James had put an itching potion all over his clothes and he had been kicked out of class for disruption. He couldn't stop scratching himself. It was rather cold, but the sun was out and was proceeding to melt the snow. Perhaps to some it was too cold to be outside, but the marauders needed a place where they could plan without being interrupted. Remus was still taking notes while the three of them came up with ideas.

"Prongs,"said Sirius to James, "What if this doesn't work, we have to have some sort of backup plan."

James thought for a moment then spoke, "If those don't work we then try jealousy. We make the girls jealous. Ever notice that when your dating someone even more girls want you?"

Sirius nodded and James continued, "If that doesn't work then...." he trailed off.

"Black mail?"offered Sirius. 

James shrugged, "I suppose so."

Remus shook his head , indicating that he did not agree, "If we do black mail , we might as well do bribes too."

Sirius grinned, "Good idea, write it down."

"I was not being serious, Padfoot,"replied Remus.

"Maybe we could buy them another kind of present or something. Or we could help them with homework," said James thinking out loud, randomly throwing ideas out at his friends.

Then the three were silent for a moment thinking of a final idea.

"Manipulation,"Sirius told them.

"What?" asked Remus.

"Manipulation. We tell everyone that if they go with Lily, Emmeline, or Hestia they will get their arses kicked or we'll curse them. That way everyone will be afraid to ask them, and they will want dates no matter what, so they will have to go with us" said Sirius brightly.

James heaved a great sigh , 'it's going to be a long couple of days', he thought.

"Stupendous plan Sirius. If we cannot get them to go with us any other way, we will scare everyone else away from them," said Remus sarcastically.

James rumpled the back of his hair so it was sticking up more than normal. "Well for now, let's pretend to be nice. No pranks at all. We want them to see what gentlemen the marauders are."

Sirius and Remus nodded.

"Oh and Sirius?" said James.

"Yeah?" asked Sirius.

"No more of your lame jokes, I think they bother Emmeline."

-Lady*Wildfire*Star

  


Yes it's been a slow start, I've been busy and haven't had time to write. It gets better though! And no, I'm not trying to make the marauders sound desperate, this is supposed to be a little bit humorous.

Please Review!

  
  



	3. Chapter 2: Candy Catastrophes!

Valentine's Hijinks

  


by: Lady*Wildfire*Star (beware of ever changing pen-names, I do that sometimes!)

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED THIS, I APPRECIATE IT! 

Rated: Pg-13, could change.

Disclaimer: Same as last chapter. Please refer to the last chapter if you need to read it.

  


Author's Notes: This story obviously will not be finished by Valentine's Day. I am , however, going to try to finish it by the beginning of March. That may or may not be accomplished by then. I'm aiming for March because I don't want people to be reading a Valentine's Day story in the middle of summer. And if this story goes well, then maybe some sort of sequel or continuation will be written later on down the line.

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Chapter Two: Candy Catastrophes!

  


February 2nd, Wednesday

"Dammit Padfoot, stop stepping on my toes," exclaimed James.

"It's not my fault, Moony keeps running into me," whined Sirius.

  


The three boys had woke up early, which was almost impossible for James, and snuck out of their dormitory. They were afraid that Peter would tattle on them for sneaking out because he wasn't invited. So they put him in the closet and accidently pushed a dresser in front of it. The boys were sneaking out of the castle, using one of the passages they had learned about, and were on their way to Honeydukes. Remus, who stood under the far left of the invisibility cloak, had the marauder's map in his hands and was watching it intently, while James and Sirius kept arguing over who ran into who.

"Shut it , you guys," said Remus , who was getting irritated with their inane arguing.

Sirius looked over to the map in Remus's hands. "Good were almost there," he said.

  


A few minutes later after the boys had walked through a trap door and up a long staircase, they found themselves in Honeydukes. The owner had just opened and was wondering what three teenage boys were doing in his store so early in the morning. The trio wandered over to the Valentine's candy and began to meticulously sort through it. Remus was admiring singing candy hearts, James had picked up chocolate wands that when you swish and flick them a Valentine's Day message is spelled in the air. 

"Moony did you ask Hestia what Emmeline likes?" asked Sirius.

Remus grinned sheepishly , "I knew I forgot something."

"Moony!" yelled Sirius.

"Sorry Padfoot. There's so many things here, why not get a few and give them all to her. Come on what girl wouldn't like this?" said Remus as he held up a raspberry chocolate frog that was the color pink for Valentine's Day.

James snatched it out of his hands, "Hey I don't have this card. I had better get this one for me instead."

Sirius picked up some chocolates that were shaped like flowers and really smelled like them too. 'Who comes up with this stuff,' he wondered.

James had found some dancing candy hearts and was making them dance while he made the other ones sing. "I think you should get these," he said with a laugh.

"Or maybe these ones," said Remus who was observing some sugar quills that spell out Valentine's messages, like the wands.

"Bernie Botts made special Valentine's Day every flavored beans this year," stated Sirius who absolutely loves Bernie Botts every flavored beans. "Gross they make one called spoiled chocolate."

"I didn't know chocolate could spoil," James told them.

"I think I'll get a few of these and give them to her. I just don't want to over do it. It would look really stupid if I bought her a lot of candy and she said no to me," Sirius said.

"You can't think like that. They are going to go with us," said James relentlessly.

Sirius grabbed the singing candy hearts and a chocolate magic wand. "Think this is enough?" he asked.

"Get this also," said Remus handing him a large solid chocolate bear that came with a small edible card.

"I wonder if they sell edible bras here?" joked Sirius.

"Don't push your luck, Padfoot," snorted James.

The boys walked over to the counter and paid. Then they went outside and put back on the invisibility cloak and began the long walk back to Hogwarts, which took a little longer than expected because James' chocolate frog got away and he insisted on chasing it.

Later on during potions....

The boys sat not far from Lily, Emmeline , Hestia, and Alice who was also in this class. The class was working on a silencing potion, that was very flammable. James had set Lily's robes on fire during the last class, which was strange for him , because perfect Potter did not mess up. Sirius was mixing in frog legs when an question hit him. He leaned over to James and asked, "How am I supposed to give the candy to Emmeline. I cannot give them to her in class and I do not want to it give her in the Great Hall. Everyone will see."

James paused to consider this, he had not thought of when and where they would present the girls with the things they planned to do. "Hmmm...." was all he said.

Remus cut in , "I guess you could go with one of them up to their dormitory and put them in her room." "But, boys aren't supposed to be in girls' dorms," he added as an afterthought.

"Have we ever not done something we weren't supposed to do?" asked Sirius.

Remus shook his head.

"Good then, I'll do that," said Sirius. He then proceeded to lean over and whisper Hestia's name. 

Hestia did not hear him at first but then responded, "What?"

"Err can I talk to you after class?" questioned Sirius.

Hestia raised her eyebrows at this, "About what?"

"I'll tell you later," replied Sirius.

Hestia was silent for a moment , "Oh alright, Black ."

Sirius smiled to himself and went back to work. He didn't however notice that someone was slowly pulling his bookbag out from underneath his chair in attempts to get into it's contents.

  


After class....

The marauders walked outside and Sirius motioned for Remus and James to go on without him. They wished him luck and then turned to leave. Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy came hurrying out of the room , laughing insanely, and Snape bumped into Sirius. 

"Watch where you're going, Snivellus," hissed Sirius.

But Snape and Malfoy were too busy laughing to respond, and they just kept walking. Hestia finally emerged from the room, accompanied by Lily and Emmeline and all three of them stopped in front of Sirius. Sirius cleared his throat, "Jones I would prefer to talk to you alone, please," he told them. Lily rolled her eyes and Emmeline just stared at him. Sirius found himself wondering if it was a inquisitive stare or an I-hate-you-Sirius-Black stare. He sincerely hoped that it was a inquisitive stare. Without another word Lily and Emmeline walked off in the same direction that James and Remus had headed. Politely Sirius told her that he didn't mean to bother her, he just had a question. Hestia, taken aback by the sudden change in personality, was kind back to him. "What did you need Sirius," she said placing emphasis on his first name.

Sirius cleared his throat, "Well it's like this. I have a present for Vance, and I'm planning on asking her to the Valentine's Ball. I was wondering if you would take me up to your dormitory and I could place the presents on her bed."

Hestia smiled remembering yesterday's conversation about which marauder each girl was attracted to. "I suppose that can be arranged. Do you need to do this now?"

"I would greatly appreciate if it could be done now, please," Sirius said sweetly and offered Hestia that 'I could melt anyone's heart' smile of his.

"Alright then, let's go," responded Hestia.

As they passed through the halls on the way to the dormitory they were not aware of several pairs of eyes following their every move. Snape and Malfoy, who were practically stuffing their fists in their mouths to keep from laughing. Emmeline, who was growing jealous by the second, Lily who was annoyed. And finally James and Remus who had their fingers crossed for good luck.

Once they reached the dormitory Hestia led Sirius over to the four poster bed with an emerald cloak draped over it. Sirius took out the presents and arranged them neatly on her bed. 

"So did you just want her to find these here later on, or did you want me to go get her?" asked Hestia.

Sirius paused, he had not thought of that part. 'Smooth move, Sirius,' he chastised himself.

"I suppose it would be better if she found them herself," he replied. 

Hestia nodded and smiled once again. "What's gotten into you, Sirius?"

"What ever do you mean?"he questioned her innocently.

"You're not being yourself," she responded quickly.

"Surely, you don't think of me as a bad guy, Hestia?" he asked offering that buttery smile again.

How could that she say that she did? Maybe they were wrong about the marauders, there was more to them than pranks and jokes. Hestia then said, "Not at all Sirius". The marauders really had a way of growing on someone.

Later on at dinner....

Emmeline Vance sat next to Hestia and across from Lily. It had really gotten under her skin that Sirius had wanted to talk to Hestia, ALONE. What could he have said to her? 'Maybe he likes her,' thought Emmeline jealously. Finally the curiosity was killing her so she had to ask."So, Hestia, what did Black want earlier?"

Hestia slowly finished a spoon full of mashed potatoes and took a long drink, as if stalling. "Just to ask me something."

"Oh," said Emmeline trying and failing to sound uninterested, "What did he want to ask?"

"Nothing really, it's not important," Hestia said nonchalantly 

Emmeline's eyes flared with jealousy. "No really what did he say?"

Hestia turned to glare at her friend, "I said nothing really."

"Well if it's not important, then why can't you tell me. Who was it about?" demanded Emmeline.

"He asked me a damn homework question," snarled Hestia, who never swore or showed anger.

Emmeline noticed her friend's dangerous tone and desisted with her questions. "Fine," she mumbled under her breath.

Silence.

"Well, I'm going to up to our room,"announced Emmeline who was still fed up with Hestia's lack of response to her questions.

"You do that," said Hestia egging her on. 

Emmeline got up and stomped off. Lily went to stand up to go with her only to be pulled back down into her seat. Lily turned to Hestia, "What did you do that for?"

Hestia only grinned, "You'll see."

  


**

  


Emmeline tried to control her rage as she raced up the staircase to her room. The nerve of Hestia sneaking off with Black. It was not that she didn't trust her friend, but wait a second. 'Ohhh no! I'm jealous? How could I be jealous, it's only Black. It's not that I like him or anything' she told herself. 'No I'm not jealous. I just don't believe friends should keep secrets, especially not with the damn marauders,' she argued with herself. Emmeline stomped up the stairs and threw open the door to her room and stopped dead in her tracks. Her jaw hung open for a second before she registered what was on her bed. There, neatly arranged, was some candy and a little card. She hurried over to her bed and opened the card and read it aloud, "From a friend, sorry for the past." The blonde picked up the wand and swished it and it spelled out in the air in gold writing, will you go to the Valentine's Ball with me from Sirius. Emmeline next examined the chocolate bear holding the singing candy hearts. She picked them up out of their bag and they began to sing. A long list of insulting swears. She dropped them, a look of surprise on her face. A practical joke, how funny, and so like the marauders. She was so delighted by the whole situation that she decided to let that go. 'That Sirius Black is really something else,' she thought. She broke off a piece of the chocolate bear's ear, and ate it. The chocolate was extremely creamy and rich, and probably the best she had ever had. She was unaware however, of the fact that her pretty golden locks were beginning to change into a putrid green as she ate the chocolate. 

Back in the Great Hall....

  


Sirius Black had just entered the Great Hall. He could not contain his anger anymore, and his eyes began quickly searching for someone. More like two someones, who were going to be in more trouble than they could handle. His only enemies were Snape and Malfoy, so it had to be them who changed the messages on the card and wand for Emmeline. Besides, they sat behind him in potions, a perfect time to switch things. Finding the Slytherin table he watched Snape and Malfoy who were chatting with some friends and laughing loudly. Sirius could literally feel the steam rising from him because he was on fire with rage. Forget hexes, he was going to kick the living shit out of both of them. About to approach the table and get his vengeance, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He spun around to find Remus, and James, who had been searching for him. Both noticed the psychotic glint in Sirius' eyes. However, James was the one that had to ask, "Sirius what's wrong?"

"I'm going to kill Malfoy and Snape,"Sirius managed to choke out.

Remus stared at Sirius for a moment, "What happened now?" he asked.

"I went to put the presents on Emmeline's bed for her to find. And the card and wand they they ...." Sirius could no longer form complete sentences because his anger was stopping him.

"They what?" demanded James.

"They changed the words in the card and wand," said Sirius trying to take a breathe to calm himself.

"What did they say," inquired Remus, who was also angry like Sirius and James.

"The card had a list of dumb blonde jokes, you know how Emmeline hates those," began Sirius.

"And the wand?" asked James

"Made comments about her large....assets,"said Sirius.

"Forget about you killing them," said James , "I'm gonna do it for you."

Sirius and Remus lunged for James who was about to walk off to the Slytherin table.

Remus gasped, "Sirius , did you check everything else to make sure it was okay?"

"Well, yeah , everything else looked okay. What are you playing at Remus?" questioned Sirius.

"Because Emmeline just entered the Great Hall with green hair and she's holding the candy hearts you gave her."

Emmeline hurried up to the boys but she didn't look angry at all. Sirius wondered if she had not seen her hair yet. Her long sunlight tresses were her pride and joy, and spent almost as much time perfecting it as Sirius did his "spikes", as he called them. Emmeline smiled at Sirius, "Black could we talk for a second?"

Sirius gulped, "Alright." And they walked off together.

Once they were out of earshot from anyone else Emmeline stopped in front of him and turned around to face him. "YES!" she exclaimed.

"You'll go with me?" asked Sirius excitedly.

"Of course! That was so sweet! Nobody has ever done something that sweet for me!" cried Emmeline.

Sirius's anger had dissipated and he was ecstatic, "Well it's the least I could do , I mean..."

"Oh stop ! That was so nice of you, how did you know I love chocolate bears?"

Sirius smiled, "Ummm lucky guess?"

Emmeline smiled back at him, "Well I have one question though. It's about these," she indicated the candy hearts. "Why did they.....cuss me out?"

Sirius eyes grew big, "THEY WHAT?" 

Emmeline picked one up out of the bag and

CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED....

Emmeline giggled at it, apparently she found it funny. Very fortunate for Sirius. 

"Lily would hate these!" exclaimed Emmeline.

"Snape and Malfoy altered some of my gifts for you," said Sirius.

"What do you mean?" asked Emmeline.

"When I took them out of my bookbag to put them on your bed , they didn't look like they did when I bought them. That's when I figured that Snape and Malfoy, my only enemies, had obviously taken them out of my bag in potions. The message the wand created had been altered and the message in the card had been changed. I should have checked the candy hearts, but they looked normal," said Sirius.

"Those bastards!" said Emmeline , "How could they do that?"

"And there's something else, Emmeline," mumbled Sirius about to reveal that Emmeline's hair was now a revolting green color.

Emmeline's smile fell, "What's that Sirius?"

Sirius hated to tell her what happened, afraid somehow she'd blame him. And it was the first time ever that he could recall at least, that she had called him Sirius instead of Black. He swallowed hard, "Look into that mirror on the wall, behind you".

Every feature in Emmeline's face showed the mortifying fear she felt. 'Is something wrong with the way I look?,' she wondered, 'no wonder people were pointing at me when I entered the Great Hall'. Slowly she twirled around and....

An eardrum shattering scream reverberated throughout the entire Castle. House elves in the kitchen dropped plates, windows broke. Dumbledore , who was in his so called office, wondered why the lenses in his glasses broke.

"THEY DID THIS TO ME!!!!? LOOK AT MY HAIR!! MY BEAUTIFUL HAIR!!" she shrieked.

"We'll get them back, we will pull a prank on them. Or I- I'll fight them!" said Sirius.

Emmeline stopped screaming. "No I have a better idea," an evil grin spread quickly across her face like wildfire.

Sirius loved her evil grin and knew she was planning something good. "What's that?"

"Someone told me that greasy Snape has a crush on me."

"Disgusting.... And your point is...." said Sirius.

"Well I suppose that they did this to ruin your plans of asking me. So ....just follow my lead," said Emmeline. 

Emmeline hurried back out into the Great Hall with Sirius on her heels. She stomped in with this look of twisted fury on her face. In front of the whole school she bellowed, "How could you Sirius Black?"

Sirius did not like this plan, especially since it involved embarrassing him, but he knew he had to do it to get the girl. Who knows, maybe a little more too. "Emmeline, I didn't do it ! I swear it! It wasn't like that earlier! Please listen to me!"

"Everything is a joke to you Black! I can't believe you! And no I will not go with YOU!" 

"But Emmeline I didn't do this!" yelled Sirius.

"I don't ever want to talk to you again Black!" screamed Emmeline.

Some of the students in the room were laughing because they thought Sirius' prank was funny, others were appalled at Emmeline's green hair.

Emmeline quickly ran out of the room pretending to be really upset and mumbling insults. Sirius chased after her. Lily, Hestia, James and Remus all jumped up and ran out of the Great Hall. It looked like some sort of relay race with how fast they were all running to catch up to each other. Either that or the house elves were giving away free desserts in the kitchen.

When the four that were chasing Sirius and Emmeline caught up to them in the Gryffindor common room (Sirius had chased Emmeline all the way there), everyone was completely out of breath. Hestia's normally flushed cheeks, were now redder than a tomato. Remus was so out of breathe that he keeled over.

"What happened? What did you do now?" demanded Lily angrily to Sirius, while shaking her finger at him. Lily stopped her questioning when she noticed the smiles on both of their faces and that Emmeline had grabbed Sirius' hand.

"Alright you guys, explain everything," she said, knowing something was definitely going on.

-L*W*S

Please review!! Reviews motivate the writer. No flames , though.

  


P.S. Candy! Your name is all over this chapter! LOL!

  
  



	4. Chapter 3: Roses aren't Red?

Valentine's Hijinks

By: Midnight*Starfire

Rated: PG-13

Disclaimer: The same as always! I do not know anything from/about Harry Potter!

A/N: Hey, sorry it's taken awhile for this, I've been working on other stories. I don't understand something, my enhanced statistic hit count is rather high, but my reviews aren't. If people don't start giving me some feedback , my updates will become less frequent. I'd like to know if there's anything I can work on or improve on. And also, I highly recommend every Harry Potter story and author on my favorites list, you should check them out if you haven't yet. If you have any recommendations or if you want me to read/review your story, review mine and I'll check out your stories! Thanks!

  
  


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Chapter 3: Roses aren't Red?

It took quite a lot of arguing, a few death threats, and Hestia saying she would steal Lily's chocolate stash and eat it in front of her, before she would leave Emmeline alone about going with one of the marauders to the Valentine's Ball. Although she did agree to keep the fact that they were going secret, it was only because she wanted to get back at Snape. There was a side to Lily Evans that no one knew, a girl with a vengeance. No one called her a mudblood and got away with it. But to keep everything secret, they had to pretend Emmeline was still furious with Sirius. Emmeline, being quite the actor, had no problem with going out of her way to make it look like Sirius was on a hit list of hers. In fact during one incident in potions, where Emmeline poured bat urine on Sirius, got quite out of hand. Sirius forgave her though and they made up, er made out.

So it was a few days later, February 7th, a Monday to be exact, that Remus decided it was time to put his part of the pact into action. The three boys had once again snuck out of their dormitories, this time petrifying Peter and putting him in the closet, since he mysteriously got out last time, and this time they bought flowers. It had been a struggle to figure out which kind because truthfully none of them knew which ones to buy. Remus had wanted to get lilies, but James shot that down by saying that Lily was Hestia's friend's name. Remus just rolled his eyes at that. Then, Remus found some flowers that more or less resembled weeds and the other two boys laughed at him for this. It wasn't exactly easy, considering the boys couldn't pronounce half of the names of the flowers either. Sirius picked out a bouquet of roses, and they argued about that as well. James told them that his mother once said that each color of rose symbolized something entirely different. Yellow was friendship or something and red meant love. The other colors meant things as well, but he couldn't remember. The red ones meant the serious kind of love, the kind that made the boys gag. Remus had picked out pink roses, but they were partially wilted, and the one white rose had a bug in it that panicked Sirius. So, Remus was stuck with the dozen red roses, which meant love. And that made him nervous, very nervous. 

Next came the discussion with how to present Hestia with the roses for it could not be done like Sirius's presenting Emmeline with candy. Remus wanted to use a different way, because he didn't want to copy his friend. He was, although, annoyed that Sirius had taken his idea. Sirius argued back that it was Remus's fault for suggesting it. So it was decided to get Emmeline and Lily in on it, and that Remus would find Hestia alone outside and give them to her and ask. Lily had to be black mailed to help the marauders yet again. Emmeline threatened to read her diary to the entire school. Or write out copies of it and then pass it out.

Later on that day....

The three boys sat beneath their favorite tree waiting for Emmeline and Lily to lead Hestia outside. Remus was shaking like a leaf, "I -I c-can't do this," he stuttered.

"Relax, Moony, it's not that hard. All you do is give them to her and then ask. What's the worst that could happen?" said James.

Remus shot him a death glare.

After a few moments, the marauders saw Hestia emerge from the castle with Lily and Emmeline, and they went out by the edge of the lake, which was a common place for them to sit. Remus felt as if his heart was going to jump out of his chest. He looked from James to Sirius and then back again. 'This is crazy,' he thought, 'No way am I doing this'. The three girls were standing over by the edge of the lake, because they didn't want to sit in the snow. The marauders, sneaking behind trees, moved closer to hear the conversation.

"Oh man, I forgot my homework for our next class. What luck!" exclaimed Emmeline. Sometimes she was too much of an actress. 

"And I have to use the restroom real quick," said Lily who must have just come up with that at the spur of the moment.

"Hestia, do stay here and wait for us, we'll only be a second," chided Emmeline.

Hestia nodded, "Alright, try to hurry though," she told them. 

The other two girls nodded and hurried away, trying to stifle giggles as they ran off. Hestia, indeed noticed her friends odd behavior, but decided to wave it off.

"Now's your chance, Moony. Go on!" said Sirius.

Remus looked at him like he was crazy, "Suddenly this seems like a bad idea".

James grabbed onto Remus' shoulders and pushed him out from underneath the tree. This made quite a sound as Remus bumped into another nearby tree and yelped and then crashed into some bushes. Remus stood up and found that Hestia was now looking over at him, wondering what he was doing in the bushes and why he had his hands behind his back. Slowly , Remus made his way over to her. Her hazel eyes watched his every move, wondering what he was up to. Had this been planned? It was peculiar for him to just suddenly come walking out of the bushes like that.

Nearby hiding behind some more bushes, a greasy haired boy and a blonde boy watched as mirth danced in their eyes. This was going to be good, what girl would want to go with Remus Lupin after he did this? Snape moved closer so he could be in direct line of aim to Remus.

Remus had now reached Hestia, "Alright there, Jones?"

Hestia smiled, not missing a thing, "Why do you have your hands behind your back Lupin?"

Remus tried to fight an oncoming blush, "Err....umm no reason?" but it came out more like a question than anything.

Hestia giggled, why was he so nervous around her? "No really , Lupin what are you hiding?"

Remus thought intently about this question. 'A lot of things really, for one I'm a werewolf. Two I've liked you since first year. And three I'm going to ask you to the Valentine's Ball and I'll die of embarrassment if you say no'. Remus finally said, "I have something to ask you," in a mature and confident voice, he was positive was not his own.

Hestia tilted her head and looked at him, "Is that so? Well what is it you would like to know?"

Remus grinned, "I was -." he said but didn't finish. His voice was gone. He tried speaking but nothing happened. Remus felt something like a rock hit the back of him, it was like someone had threw something at him.

Hestia stared at him wide eyed, "Remus are you okay?" she asked frantically. Remus continued mouthing words but nothing came out. Another rock hit him, he was starting to wonder what was going on. Panicking and not thinking straight , Remus brought his hands in front of him and accidently exposed the roses.

Only they were no longer a crimson color. Now they were black roses, a well known bad luck charm throughout the wizarding world. Hestia seized them from him, a note of amusement in her voice. "Are these for me?"

Remus could only nod. Nearby behind a tree Sirius dropped the rocks he had been throwing trying to get Remus's attention to tell him that the roses had turned black for some reason. Sirius and James didn't think that Remus should give a girl black roses, because not only did they mean bad luck supposedly but death as well. They figured that a girl would be repulsed by black roses and wonder if there was some sort of symbolism behind receiving them. Also, nearby in some bushes, Snape and Malfoy laughed uncontrollably. Not only did they silence Remus Lupin, but they turned his beautiful red roses into dead black ones. But the laughter ceased when they heard Hestia say, "Remus I have always wanted black roses! They are said to be bad luck, but I believe they are beautiful! I mean morbid, but beautiful! Do you have any idea how rare these are? I bet they cost a fortune!" Hestia continued to ramble on and on about the roses and Remus still couldn't speak, he could only give her a satisfied yet flustered grin.

"Why can't you speak ? What's happened to your voice?" she then asked him.

James and Sirius decided they could be only one reason that Remus's plans were almost spoiled. James decided to go find Snape and Malfoy, while Sirius hurried forward to ask Hestia for Remus. Since Remus no longer had a voice. James crept over to the bushes where Snape and Malfoy were, waiting for a chance to pounce on them the way a tiger does it prey. James knew where they were hiding because of the laughing noises and he knew that the bushes were not making that sound on their own accord.

Sirius, who had approached Hestia, whispered softly, "Hestia, Snivellus and Malfoy are plotting against us. You know how they changed my presents to Emmeline. Well they've taken away Remus's voice and turned the roses black."

Remus was afraid for a moment that Hestia would be displeased that the roses weren't really the ebony color she had first seen. But that didn't seem to matter to her the look on her face remained pleased. But before she could say anything there was a brilliant flash of light. Snape and Malfoy were hanging upside down in the air, holding onto their robes as not to expose themselves. Then James said expelliarmus and took their wands. Snape recalled that this had happened to him before, James Potter had commonly done this to him as a fifth year. 

"Another trick out of you, and you'll be sorry you were born," said James sternly. 

"We didn't do anything!"said Snape, who usually spoke with his hands, and doing so released his robes and had to grab them quickly again. But he wasn't quick enough. Everyone groaned in disgust. He should have known better than to let go.

"Like hell you didn't," said Sirius from nearby. 

"Give Remus back his voice, or you'll be in more pain than you can handle and that's a promise," demanded James.

James let them down and gave Severus his wand. Sirius and Remus had their wands out and pointed at Snape and Malfoy in case they decided not to comply. Even Hestia had her wand out as well, to back them up if need be. Severus Snape muttered the countercurse so Remus could speak again. James gave Malfoy his wand and told them to leave or else. As they scurried off Malfoy said over his shoulder, "I'll get you back for this Potter! This isn't over with!"

"Oh shut up!" hissed Hestia.

The boys laughed at this, who would have known Hestia had an attitude, everyone figured that was Lily's job. Lily had a tendency to be on permeant PMS as Sirius said.

It was quiet for a moment then Sirius said, "Hestia, Remus bought these for you because he has something to ask you."

Hestia looked over at Remus, "Is that so?" she asked.

Remus nodded wishing his two best friends weren't present when he was about to ask because he would feel embarrassed if she said no. But at the same time he was glad, because it was moral support. "W-will you go to the Valentine's Ball with me, Jones?" he questioned her. "I mean you don't have to if you don't want to. After all this I would understand if you said no and -" 

"Moony", said Sirius giving him a little shove, "Your rambling again".

Remus's faced reached an ultimate fire red, and showed no promises of ever returning to a normal color.

Hestia was silent for a moment, which seemed like a million years to Remus. Her lips formed a beautiful smile and then she spoke, "It's Hestia not Jones. And I thought you'd never ask."

-M*S

Yes I know it was quite short, so sorry! The next chapter should be up rather soon, please review!

  



	5. Chapter 4: James the Poetic OR Operation...

Valentines Hijinks

by: Midnight*Starfire

Disclaimer: I own nothing about Harry Potter.

A/N: I have decided to never discontinue any of my stories,(except maybe one). I had actually discontinued four of them, but I brought back three. So I'm rushing through the final chapter of this. I see no point in putting in a lot of work into something no one is reading anyways. Perhaps later on I shall revise this and make it longer. But until then I just want to complete it. 

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Chapter Four: James the Poetic -OR- Operation Jealously

February 9th, Wednesday.....five days Valentine's Day....three days from the ball...

James had slaved all night trying to write a poem for Lily. But every time he wrote a line, he crumbled up the parchment and throw it away. So far had gone through about ninety parchments and seventy five quills. Everything came out sickeningly mushy or sounded dirty. One piece of work, James had really liked, Remus had laughed at. When James asked why, Remus had told him he doubted any girl wanted to read a poem about her breasts. Especially not someone as hot- blooded as Lily.

"How is this, Remus?" said James holding out his latest creation.

"Your eyes are green like pickles and your hair is redder than a tomato....." read Remus aloud.

Silence.

"James I don't think poetry is your thing," said Remus politely.

James snatched the paper from his hands and through it into the pile. The pile had grown so large due to James's indecisiveness, that Sirius was actually jumping off his bed into the pile. Again and again. Peter had been doing this also, but Sirius had "accidently" tripped Peter right as he went to jump off the bed. A loud crack reverberated through the room. Sirius had dragged Peter down to the hospital wing just to find out that Peter broke his wrist. After finding out his aliment, Sirius hurried off to continue doing what he had been doing before.

"Why don't you just write it , Remus," suggested Sirius as he threw himself off his bed and into the sea of papers.

"Because this was Prongs's idea," retorted Remus, "I may be the most studious out of all of us, but I do not have a way with words. Why don't you try to help instead of destroying the room?"

"Naw," said Sirius as he climbed off the floor, "I think I'm going to go get some desserts from the kitchen, and I made up this huge story and now all the House Elves think I'm Dumbledore's nephew. They practically throw food at me."

"I wondering if the throwing is a good thing," said Remus.

"Who cares!" exclaimed Sirius as the door shut with a snap.

Remus took the quill from James's hand, "Try something like this," he said.

~*~*

Meanwhile in the girls's dorms (Hestia, Lily, Alice, and Emmeline's room to be exact)

Emmeline was furious. She had tried on several different sets of dress robes and found nothing that pleased her. Lily combed threw the pile, deeming all of the dress robes worthy minus an old off white set that looked more like something that would go on a dining room table. And a greenish brownish blob that would make one look like something from a swamp. Who would have ever bought that to begin with?

"Em? What's wrong with this one," she asked holding up a soft violet.

"My chest looks to small in it," Emmeline complained. Lily rolled her eyes thinking that could never be a problem for chesty Emmeline.

"Why don't you like this one, I think it's lovely," said Lily holding up a bright blue one, with silver glitter.

"It's too flashy," responded Emmeline indicating the silver glitter.

"Hmm," said Lily nodding her head, "And this one?" said she holding up a electric yellow one.

"Not all blondes look good in yellow, I looked too bright. Like a pineapple," said Emmeline sounding rather airheaded. 

"A pineapple?" asked an exasperated Lily.

Emmeline nodded fiercely.

Lily held up a risque scarlet one that had slashes all over it and said, "Let me guess, you liked this?" she asked.

"I almost did," said Emmeline, "I like how revealing it was, but it doesn't fit the occasion."

Lily held back a laugh.

"Can I wear this one?" asked Lily holding up a satin light pink one.

"Sure," said Emmeline, " I didn't like that one on me, I've grown taller since it got it and it seemed too short."

Lily looked at the long hemline and laughed, deciding it probably wasn't too short for Emmeline. Being wealthy, like Emmeline was, meant that she never wanted to where the same thing more than three times.

Alice came was searching through her truck and finally she found it, "Em, come here," she ordered.

Emmeline got up off her bed and walked over to her, eager to see whatever it was that Alice had.

"How about this one," said Alice holding up a beautiful silk emerald green set of dress robes.

Emmeline's eyes widened and her mouth nearly hit the ground in awe. "My favorite color!" she said.

Hestia emerged from a closet dragging her truck behind her. "I brought some dress robes too. However, I don't remember which one's I packed. I don't think I packed my nicest ones," she said. Hestia's family wasn't exactly wealthy , and she felt embarrassed about it. But no one ever remarked on it and made her feel bad, especially not her friends. Hestia opened her truck and pulled out two dresses robes, a dark blue one that was made of a flowing material and a bright orange one that would flatter no one.

Eventually everyone decided, Emmeline was to where the emerald one, Lily choose the soft pink, and Hestia and Alice traded, because Alice wanted dark blue while Hestia wanted the vivid violet one Alice brought.

"Lils?" asked Alice.

"Yes?"

"Are you still going with the quidditch captain of the Ravenclaw team?" questioned Alice.

"Uh huh," said Lily noticing her the tone in her friend's voice.

"Well...the thing is," began Alice.

"What thing?" asked Lily.

"I heard he's back with his ex-girlfriend and I saw them kiss earlier," Alice blurted out.

Lily was silent.

Then she was outraged, "I'm not going with him! How dare him!" she yelled.

Lily put down her dress robes and sat on her bed, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

Hestia looked from Emmeline to Alice and decided now was as good of time as any to ask.

"Lily, I have someone who you could go with, that would like to go with you. Plus you could get back at Alexander, these two are enemies. Alexander would be real angry to see you with him," said Hestia.

Lily thought for a moment, wondering who it could be. Then she realized who all of her friends with going with and remembered who Alexander's greatest enemy was. 

James Potter.

"No! Absolutely not! You can not make me go with Potter," said Lily defiantly.

"Alexander would be overcome with jealousy," said Hestia dramatically.

Silence.

"Oh come on Lils, Potter's not that bad. I've been around him lately because of Sirius and Potter is hilarious," said Emmeline.

"He's cute too," added Alice.

"And he's been a real nice guy lately," said Hestia.

Lily looked at her three friends and gave a defeated sigh.

A little while later....

Lily found herself waiting outside the boys' dorms, where Hestia had told her to wait. Somehow they had convinced her to ask James to go with her. A couple years ago this would have been suicide, last year this would have just been unthinkable. This year....why did it not seem so bad? Lily leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. When would James show up?

"Lily?"

Startled from her reveries Lily lost her balance and fell to the ground. She looked at James from the ground, mortified. He smirked at her as extended his hand, intent on helping her up. Stubborn Lily did not receive his help, instead she helped herself up and scowled at him as if it was his fault she lost her balance. James couldn't help but smile at Lily's attitude. "Are you alright Evans?" he asked sweetly.

Lily nodded slowly. "I have a proposition for you, Potter. Best not to let it go to your big fat head though."

James's smile dissipated, "Proposition?" Why the hell did he even bother with her?

"Yes," Lily said, "Are you too dense to know what that means or something?"

James's straight face became a scowl, "I do not need your insults," he said. Why had he bothered to write _her_ a poem?

"Sorry," Lily mumbled. "Look here's the deal. My date for the ball suddenly decided that his ex-girlfriend was more appealing than me, so I need to go with you to make him jealous."

"Why should I do anything for you?" asked James seriously.

"Because I know you want to help me," said Lily.

"Why would I want to do that?" questioned James.

"You have been obsessed with me since first year, when you ran me over on the train," replied Lily.

"And you say I have a big head? Listen to you! I would not call it obsessed," said James, now very vexed.

Not being obsessed was a lie, James recalled the time he had done Sirius's homework for a month just so Sirius would cut a lock of Lily's hair in potions. James had been attempting to create a forbidden love potion but gave up that attempt after being black mailed by Remus, who had found a photo of James when he was young. In the photo James was dressed up as a girl, because his older sister thought it would be comical. Remus had insisted that it wasn't worth getting expelled. 

Lily abruptly smiled, "This is how it always begins," she said.

"What's that?" asked James, deep in thought.

"You and I fight over nothing, it's always been this way. We fight just because we have nothing better to say to each other," was it just her or did Potter look really good today? Those big hazel eyes, that perfect smile...and he smelled so good too...

"Look Lil, all things put aside, I don't think you know me that well," he said. 'Now would be a perfect time to read that poem,' James thought.

"Oh really? Since when did you stop hexing people for fun or cursing Snape?" she asked.

"Encase you did not notice I have not hexed anyone in a long time. I know longer curse people for fun or because I can. And Snape is a lost cause, whenever I leave him alone, he comes to bother me. Admit it you hate the smelly, greasy bastard as much as I do," said James.

Lily's lips formed a small smile, "He ought to wash his hair," she said.

"Tell you what Lil, let's start over completely. Give me today to get to know me, and if you find somehow that I'm still that arrogant jerk you hated than I will leave you alone. I cannot be held responsible for screwing up tomorrow as that is a totally different day entirely," said James smiling.

Lily's smile widened, "I guess it would not hurt, but only on one condition."

"What's that?"

"STOP CALLING ME LIL!"

Nearby, spying was Emmeline and Sirius. The two were sitting in chairs by the fire, that were not in the sight range of Lily and James. Sirius had pastry strains on his black robes, because the house elves had pummeled him with sweets when he tried to steal some, and he had not yet changed. Emmeline watched with a delighted smile, while Sirius looked more confused.

"Wonder what they're saying," said Sirius.

"It looks good whatever it is, Lils is laughing at something. And I mean come on, it has to be good because she has not strangled him yet," said Emmeline.

"Hmmmm," was all Sirius said.

James then pulled out a piece of paper from his robes and held it behind his back.

  


Sirius leaned forward so far he fell from the chair. Lily and James looked around at the commotion but not towards Emmeline and Sirius. Sirius quickly picked himself up and sat back in the chair. "Uhh Emmeline."

"Yeah?" she asked.

"We cannot let James read his poetry to Lily. If Lily hears that you can kiss any sort of truce between them goodbye," said Sirius.

"What's the easiest way to do that?" asked Emmeline.

Sirius thought for a second and to his surprise nothing was happening. 

Suddenly Sirius jumped up and raced over to James , snatched the paper out of his hands and ran out of the Gryffindor common room. Emmeline couldn't help but laugh at the fact that Sirius runs like a girl.

Lily looked around, 'gee I wonder what that was about,' she thought.

James then explained that Sirius was anxious to copy his homework and he had stolen it. Secretly James planned to jinx his friend later. Casting an all over itching spell in front of Emmeline sounded rather appealing.

~*~

Lily and James spent the remainder of the day talking, and to Lily's surprise Potter was not too bad. Okay not half bad.... okay so not bad at all. She wondered why she had not noticed all his good features before: he was intelligent, he was good looking, he was funny, he was good looking, he was sweet when he wanted to be, he was good looking, he could be real helpful like when Lily was confused in advanced potions, and most of all he was good looking. During charms Lily had been wondering what Potter looked like without his glasses, true they did fit his face, but she wanted to see. Reaching over swiftly she removed them, as he looked down studying the assignment for charms. As he looked up at her Lily felt her heart flutter and she scolded herself for it. He was even better looking without the glasses! Was it possible...that she, Lily Evans, liked James Potter? James smiled at her and she proceeded to knock over her ink well. The rest of the day went like that as well. James smiled, and Lily did something incredibly stupid to embarrass herself. Hestia who was present during an incident when Lily knocked over her goblet during dinner, deduced that the plan had worked. Operation jealously had been a success.

~*~

It was nighttime, Lily and James were sitting in the common room, finishing potions essays together. Lily would wrote a few words and look over at James who looked involved with his studies, bite her lip and look back down. Then, James would look up at Lily, study her for a second, smile and look back down. Nearby, Sirius was napping in a chair by the fire, that he was sharing with Emmeline. Remus was reading and Hestia and Emmeline were talking. They also watched Lily and James sneak looks at each other and decided that they were great match makers.

It appeared that James had finally won Lily's attention, by helping her all day in classes, and making her laugh and smile. Yelling at Malfoy and Snape when they called her a mudblood and uttering some evil obscene threats when they tried to steal Lily's bookbag. He had been the perfect gentlemen all day and when they had some extra time he even began teaching Lily how to play quidditch. 

"Lily?"

"Yes, James?"

"Could you please read to me the ingredients for the cure to the invisibility potion?" asked James.

"James could you hold on, I'd like to finish this paragraph before I lose my train of thought," replied Lily.

"Just real quick," he said.

"James I -" began Lily stubbornly

"Please Lily!" pleaded James looking straight into her eyes.

"Fine,"snapped Lily.

"One hair from a unicorn's tail, a beasel, a stem from a poison rose, a drop of vampire bat's blood, Lily would you go to the ball with me, three earthworms,...." Lily's voice trailed off.

Wait a second!

She re-read the lines she had just previously read and stopped at one line.

Lily would you go to the ball with me?

She looked up at James, and her smile began to widen as she nodded her head yes.

  


-M*S

  


Please Review!

The epilogue shall be posted soon!

  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	6. Epilogue

  


Valentines Hijinks

By: Midnight*Starfire

Disclaimer: I do not own anything about Harry Potter! I made no profit off this story! No suing!

A/N: Looks like I have finally finished this! Here's the epilogue, enjoy! Please review. Sorry I rushed through it, but I have other projects to complete!

~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~

EPILOGUE

Five years later.....

A beautiful platinum haired witch was packing up her belongings and putting them into large brown boxes. Any day now, Emmeline Vance would be moving in with her boyfriend, Sirius Black. She had been hurrying through packing, not paying much attention to what she threw in each box. A loud clank, as she broke some plates she tossed into a box, made her realize she should be much more careful.

Emmeline opened up the left side of her closet and found her trunk from Hogwarts. Old memories replayed in her head as she hurried over to the trunk and dragged it from the closet. Prying open the lid, she looked at the trunk's contents, which she had not seen in five years. On the very top lie a set of silk emerald colored dress robes. She picked it up and hugged it closed to her, remembering the night of the ball. The four girls had worked for hours perfecting the hair and make-up for that night. Emmeline laughed as she remembered how hard it had been picking out dress robes and how happy she was when Alice said she could keep the emerald ones. Beneath the robes was all her old school books, her old cauldron and her old broom. She laughed as she touched each and remembered something long since forgotten. At the bottom of the truck was a small leather bound book, that she could not recall. Opening it carefully revealed that it was an enchanted photo album. 

Emmeline tried not to cry, as she turned through and saw pictures of her and her friends at Hogwarts. It was like watching them grow up all over again. There was a picture of Lily, Emmeline, Hestia, and Alice as scared looking little first years. There were pictures of quidditch matches, and pictures of them at Hogsmead. There were individual pictures of all of her friends, and she had to laugh at how much each one had changed over the years. Especially Hestia when her hair was incredibly short and someone had mistaken her for a boy during third year. Nearing the end of the book she found the pictures of the eight of them at the ball. Emmeline was wearing those emerald dress robes and Sirius had picked her up, like they had just been married for the picture. Lily wore a satin light pink set of dress robes and stood in front of James, who had his arms wrapped around her. Hestia wore vivid violet colored ones and was turned to face Remus. She had her hands placed upon his chest and he had his arms wrapped tightly around her waist. Alice and Frank, now Alice and Frank Longbottom, stood facing each other and holding onto each other's hands.

Emmeline then found the final photographs that were not part of the album. The final pictures were stashed beneath the album of pictures from Hogwarts. Pictures of them all at James and Lily's wedding, pictures from Alice and Frank's wedding, and pictures of them when they joined the Order of the Phoenix. "Who would have ever thought that their Valentines' hijinks would have resulted in this?" Emmeline muttered happily as she admired the pictures. She had been dating Sirius since seventh year, two of the four couples had been married, and Hestia and Remus had broken up just to get back together three years later. Emmeline wiped away a crystal tear, just as there was a knock at the door.

"Come in," she said.

"EM! Come on we have to apparate to St. Mungo's!" exclaimed Sirius as he barged into the room.

Emmeline turned to face Sirius, worry etched in her eyes, "What has happened?" she asked, her voice full of fear.

"It's nothing bad, Emmeline," said Sirius softly.

"Well, then what happened?" demanded Emmeline.

"Lily just gave birth to a baby boy, I'm a godfather!" Sirius exclaimed.

Emmeline smiled brightly and excepted the hand Sirius offered to help her up. Without another word the two of them left hand in hand.

By itself, sitting on the bed where Emmeline left it, was the photograph of all of them at the ball.

  
  
  


THE END.

A/N: An abrupt end I know, but I figured it was an appropriate ending. Maybe later I will revise it and add more. Until then, thanks for reading.

-M*S


	7. Bonus Chapter, ch5

Valentine's Hijinks

BY: Midnight Starfire

A/N: Since the reviewers have been more than kind I thought I would write a chapter on the ball. I mean it was the whole point of this story wasn't it? The marauders asking the girls to the ball. Well here you go, hope you enjoy this. No flames please!

By the way instead of using these ' ' I'm using _italics_ to indicate someone's thoughts.

Disclaimer: Oh what chaos would erupt if I owned the characters from Harry Potter. The first thing I would do is torture Peter!! But unfortunately I do not own anything and I never will.

-----

Bonus chapter

Chapter Five: Marauders plus Firewhiskey = Chaos

Saturday, February 13th. The day of the ball, one day from Valentine's Day.....

Sirius Black was an impatient and agitated soul. Waiting and sitting still were among the many things that Sirius Black detested about life and found near impossible to do. Sitting in HIS, not anyone else's but HIS, overstuffed armchair by the fire he waited. And he waited. True it was midnight and everyone else was lost in dreamland, yet his eyes could not help but dart to the entrance of the dormitories every once in awhile. While Remus and Peter sleep soundly (Peter a little too soundly, for Sirius had once succeeded in setting their room on fire and Peter did not awake as his bed caught fire), James did not. James had always been a light sleeper, constantly given to insomnia and sleepwalking. Sleepwalking which almost lead to his expulsion when he slept walked into the girls' dorms and woke up there.

Sirius once again looked around the room, finding nothing. It was a relief, yet discouraging all in the same breath. He was hoping to see a specific someone, yet hoping not to see anyone else. Sirius did not fear expulsion, he was a favorite with all of his professors and the headmaster because of his charm. The marauders were notorious for their pranks but that didn't mean the teachers weren't fond of them because of their wit and intelligence. Being very tired Sirius truly hoped he would not have to invent some sort of falsehood to save himself. He couldn't begin to fathom what would happen if he was caught.

About to give up, literally believing he could hear his bed calling his name, a lone figure stumbled into the room. Sirius stared at the person, dumbfounded, wondering why in Merlin's name they were dressed in a filthy set of black robes. This individual's face was covered causing them to look like a Dementor. Forcing himself not to laugh at this person's so called cunningness, Sirius motioned for them to come over to him. The figure seemed to float to him and Sirius found himself unable to stifle the laughter. When Sirius had said make sure to be stealthy, he did not say dress like a Dementor and try to scare the wits out of anyone who spies you wandering down the halls.

"You're lucky they didn't change the passwords," mumbled the cloaked figure.

"Am I?" retorted Sirius. "Where's the....stuff?"

The hooded figure held up a small velvet black satchel and waved it in front of Sirius. Promptly, Sirius reached out to try and retrieve the satchel.

"No," said the figure shaking its finger. "You must first promise not to tell that I was the one who brought you this," it demanded.

Sirius nodded his head in compliance. "I don't actually know who you are, Frank said it was a friend who would retrieve it. He did not speak your name."

The figure was silent for a moment then said, "that is well, I wouldn't want you getting me expelled. Finest stuff in the whole castle this is."

"Finest stuff?" interrogated Sirius, "you mean other professors actually keep this stuff around?"

The cloaked figure nodded, "Dumbledore's just happens to be the strongest, and I'll testify to that." The figure abruptly laughed an odd shrill laugh that almost sounded forced. "Imported, this stuff is." The figure then proceeded to hand the velvet back satchel to Sirius.

Sirius snatched it eagerly from its hands and said, "Right then, what's the price for this?"

"I'm not fond of money, I have enough of my own. Have you brought the cards?" it questioned.

"Indeed," replied Sirius pulling out a tiny brown sack. "How many?"

"I'm thinking around six, perhaps. Yes, six of your rarest ones. No I changed my mind, make that seven. Yes, seven my lucky number," chattered the cloaked figure.

Sirius's deep blue eyes widened, "SEVEN?!" he exclaimed.

"Yes seven, this stuff is rare. It was quite the task getting my hands on it as well. Now seven or I'll be leaving," said the figure.

"Six?" bargained Sirius.

"Do not gamble with me," laughed the figure, "seven or you can find another way to get your hands on this. I doubt you will, it's not easy to access when you're at school."

"Fine," said Sirius handing the figure the cards, "Seven of my newest and rarest ones. Are they to your liking?" he asked.

The figure examined the cards and nodded. "Perfect! I have none of these!"

Sirius was laughing inwardly, _what kind of fool trades CHOCOLATE FROG CARDS for this?_

"T'was nice doing business with you, Mr. Black. If ever you need anything again, be sure to look me up," said the figure.

Sirius lifted one eyebrow quizzically at the figure's statement. "Righttttt......"

Without another word the two parted ways.

Upstairs in his room Sirius laughed evilly to himself as he picked the lock to his secret chest, where he kept all sorts of things. Most of the things the marauders knew about, but some they didn't. Like Sirius's teddy bear named Mr. Hugs. Throwing the black satchel into the box and re-locking it, Sirius then jammed the box under his bed. He hopped into bed and rolled over to fall asleep.

James, who had been awake since Sirius left inconspicuously the first time, couldn't help but wonder why Sirius was laughing evilly and what he had brought back with him.

The next morning at breakfast.....

Sirius as usual was helping himself to all the bacon at the table, including that which was on other people's plates. Especially when they were not looking. Remus was reading at the table, which in some cultures is considered rude, Peter overslept, Frank was talking to Alice, and James was oddly missing from the whole equation. As he chewed yet his twentieth piece of bacon, Sirius pondered whether or not to tell James and Remus of his exploits last night. James would probably laugh and say he wanted to be part of Sirius's no- good -underhanded- plan but Remus would probably panic. "Now Sirius, you must give that back. You know we will all get expelled blah blah blah...." and that's when Sirius would stop listening. Sirius already had one mother that he hated, he didn't need another.

James then came hurrying into the Great Hall. As everyone milled out of their dormitories to breakfast, James had stayed behind. When he was positive that only he and Peter (who was asleep) was in the room he picked the lock on Sirius's secret chest. James had to laugh when he saw some of the items in there, but deciding this was not the time for that, he retrieved the black satchel. Opening it up he received quite a surprise......

Sirius was interrupted from his thirtieth piece of bacon by a puzzled James clambering into the Great Hall. James hurried over to Sirius, moving and tripping over people in the process, and sat down. "Padfoot, we need to talk!" he exclaimed.

Sirius once again lifted the signature one eyebrow, "Whut fur?" he asked with his mouth full of food.

James immediately fetched the black satchel from his robes, "Padfoot, old friend, what do you intend on doing with this? And a bottle this size, that's insane! Do you have some sort of problem I do not know about?" rambled James.

Sirius chose to temporarily dismiss the fact that James had invaded his personal space and gone through his belongings. "SSSHHH!" he hissed grabbing the satchel from James. "It's for the ball."

"You're going to drink this whole bottle of fire whiskey before the ball?" asked James.

"No!" yelled Sirius a bit too loud because some scared first years scurried away. "I was thinking it would be....well interesting to add this to the punch at the ball," said Sirius.

A sly, mischievous grin spread across James' face faster than wild fire. "Good point, Padfoot. But none the less where did you get this?"

Sirius smiled as well, "I have connections and I'm afraid I'm not allowed to say. But I'll leave you with an amusing thought, it came from Dumbledore's office."

"Dumbledore?" asked James dumbly in disbelief, "No way!"

"Way," said Sirius. "I have never seen dark blue fire whiskey before, I didn't even know it existed."

"Well, it's imported. From....Russia?" said James trying to read the label.

Sirius looked at the bottle trying to make out the script, "something like that."

Upstairs in the girls' dormitories......

"Emmeline, please tell me that you're not already getting ready for the ball, it doesn't start until nightfall," bellowed Hestia, "by then your hair is going to be mussed up anyway."

"I'm not getting ready Hes," said Emmeline, "I'm merely deciding what jewelry and make up to wear tonight." Emmeline had gotten out a large box full of jewelry and make up and was going through all of it. Of course she had also retrieved her emerald set of dress robes and was trying to match the jewelry to it. 

Lily came practically bouncing into the room. "Morning everyone!" she said cheerfully. Emmeline and Hestia turned to stare at Lily, who was ALWAYS grumpy and impatient in the mornings. A pretty little smile graced Lily's face and her eyes twinkled, and she had an air of sheer excitement about her. Hestia and Emmeline exchanged surprise yet delighted faces.

"You do like him!" chortled Emmeline.

Due to her comment a fifteen minute long argument about the fact that Lily wasn't sure or not if she did like him unsued.

After the argument the girls headed to breakfast.

But Emmeline brought up James which egged Lily back into their discussion.

"I never said I liked him. Not once!"

"You didn't have to, you spoke with your eyes my friend."

"That's impossible! Besides even if I did like him, which I can assure you I don't know for sure yet, he probably likes some tart. Some girl with a food name or something like his last girlfriends. Trixie, Candy, Buttercup, whatever!"

Emmeline put her hands on the door to the Great Hall and then turned around, "Yeah I bet you're right he does like one of them. That's why he's taking you to the VALENTINE's Ball and not them, hmmm?"

Lily was silenced from her tirade by Emmeline's comment. It was well known that if anyone even went to the Valentine's Ball they took someone they were INTERESTED in or someone they were DATING. A dainty smile of realization took over Lily Evans' features.

The girls entered the Great Hall in silence and headed over to their table.

All was well and the disagreement was ended.

They sat down to eat and Emmeline just had to start up again. "So Mrs. Potter what are you naming your first child?"

Thus causing a two hour tirade from Lily.

The marauders (minus Peter because he couldn't get a date, even bribery did not work) and Frank stood in front of large mirrors in the bathroom getting ready for the ball. As boys, there wasn't much work to be done, yet somehow Sirius managed to keep them in the bathroom for a year. Sirius had to perfect his hair, which consisted of doing and re-doing his hair, using too much gel and then complaining about it. Remus straightened out his dress robes and noticed that he had a large hole eaten in it from a moth. Frank offered Remus his extra set and Remus took the offer, though it wounded his pride. Remus then left to retrieve Frank's extra dress robes and change. Right after Remus left, Frank left to go see Alice.

"Hey....uhhh...Prongs?" asked Sirius.

"Padfoot?" replied James.

"Are we still going to...spike the punch?"

James smiled wickedly and nodded, "I think we should sneak down there while they are setting up and offer to help. That way we can add the special ingredient in, and no one will see us."

Sirius nodded and grinned. "Absolutely brilliant, Prongs. You have just reminded me why you are my partner in crime," he told James.

They then exited and headed towards the Great Hall, where the ball would be held. Not before Sirius checked his hair once last time though. The professors would think they were too kind offering to help like that. Even though there wasn't much help needed because everything was done with magic.

Remus came hurrying back in to see his friends, to find that they had left. "Where did everyone go?" mused Remus aloud.

In the girls's dormitories.....

"Hold still Hestia! You act like you have never worn eyeliner before!" yelled Emmeline who had been attempting to put eyeliner on Hestia for about an hour now, just to have Hestia move whenever it reached her eyes.

"I've seen how you wear your makeup, Em, and I don't want to look like you! So just get back!"roared Hestia as she jumped up. Emmeline then chased her around the room.

"Oh stop! My makeup doesn't look bad at all, it looks beautiful! Just like me!" joked Emmeline.

"CONCEITED!" yelled Hestia.

Nearby curling her hair with her wand, seated upon her bed, was Lily. She was in great spirits today, especially after the walk she and James took. She looked adoringly at the small vase of daisies he had picked for her.

Alice was rummaging the closet, desperately searching for her shoes. Every once in awhile she would mumble something incoherent and run around the room throwing everything in sight out of her way as she searched for her shoes. 

A small strawberry blonde haired girl entered the room. "Alice, Frank's waiting for you in the common room. He wants to talk to you or something," she said.

Alice looked up from ransacking her truck, "Tell him I'm busy and I cannot find my shoes, I'll see him later," she said.

The strawberry blonde haired girl nodded and exited.

"Lily, are you sure that you do not know where my shoes are?" asked Alice exasperatedly.

"I haven't seen them, Alice. I'll help you look in just a second if you want," responded Lily.

Alice frantically searched under her bed, while Emmeline began doing her eyeshadow. She had decided on a shimmery baby blue to match her light blue eyes. Lily had moved on to pinning her hair in a updo. Hestia was putting on some light powder and curling her eyelashes with her wand.

Alice finally found her shoes under Hestia's bed. After putting them on she returned to straightening out her long wavy hair. Lily had moved onto to makeup and Emmeline was curling her hair, while Hestia put on some of Emmeline's jewelry she borrowed.

All in all it took the girls a couple hours to finish getting ready. They wanted to look perfect, no hair out of place, no makeup smudged, and for everything to look just right. Hestia hardly recognized herself, because she always wore light makeup or none at all. Alice was impressed with how pretty her hair looked straight, because she always wore it wavy and a lot of the time she wore it pulled up. Emmeline was impressed with how well emerald green flattered her and Lily felt like a princess with all the diamonds she was wearing. After a final touch-up the girls left their dorm room and headed down the stairs to the common room to meet the boys.

Downstairs in the Gryffindor common room, the four boys waited for the girls. Sirius had decided, on a whim, to explain to Remus why he should not drink the punch. Well, he could if he wanted to, but Sirius doubted Remus could hold his liquor.

"You did WHAT?" asked a rather irate Remus. "You got to be KIDDING ME!"

Sirius laughed nervously. "Yes, we did put fire whiskey in the punch, no joke," he said.

"We?" asked Remus but Frank cut in.

"I'm definitely having some punch. I think I'll get Alice to have some too," laughed Frank.

"We?" repeated Remus. Sirius tried to avert his eyes from James, but to no avail. 

"Ohhh," said Remus, "So you helped him, huh James?"

James gulped, _how does Remus always make one feel like they have done something wrong?_

James slowly nodded his head.

Remus let out an sigh and grinned slightly, "Well I suppose we could always blame it on Snape and Malfoy, right?"

James and Sirius had to laugh at their friend's sudden change of demeanor. Sirius was about to ramble onwards about the punch when he noticed his friends' mouths hanging open in awe. Turning to see what they were gaping at Sirius received quite a surprise himself....

Ascending the stairs were four girls that were the epitome of beauty and perfection. Sirius had never seen any of the girls that done up and was rather surprised how flawless they looked. They were always beautiful, but now they were perfect. Sirius felt a sudden wave of self consciousness hit him as he looked at Emmeline. He had never felt that way before....

Sirius looked around him, and decided to break the gawking spell. "Right then,"he said, "Shall we go?" he asked learning forward to offer his arm to Emmeline in a gentlemanly gesture. Emmeline blushed and giggled, carefully linking her arm with his.

"By the way Emmeline, you look very very beautiful tonight," Sirius added.

Thus setting off a chain reaction of compliments from the boys to the girls.

And with that, they were off.

At the ball.....

"I don't know how to dance!" whispered Remus to James.

"What do you mean you do not know how to dance? Everyone knows how to dance!" James exclaimed boisterously causing a group of Slytherins to turn around and cast him death glares. James returned the death glares and tapped his robes with his hand, which was his signature move. Almost every student at Hogwarts knew the robe tapping was a indication of the words "don't piss me off, or I'll curse you". The pocket he tapped was the location of his wand. As they hurried away, a small snicker erupted from James' throat. 

"I do not know how to DANCE!" repeated Remus.

"Then avoid the dancing. Take Hestia over to a table and sit down with her and talk. Don't avoid the slow-dances though, females get offended if you do so," said James.

Remus nodded, and hurried away to find Hestia.

Just as James turned around, Lily and Emmeline with Sirius trailing behind hurried up to him. Emmeline had a glass of punch in each hand and Lily did as well. Sirius, however had no punch with him, but was stumbling as if he had quite a bit earlier. Lily and Emmeline began to converse with James as Sirius stood in the background wide-eyed trying to signal to James that the girls were suspicious.

"I think there is something in this punch," complained Lily, "I feel really light-headed all the sudden."

"Well, whatever is in this punch, it's addicting," said Emmeline chugging down another glass, "I cannot get enough of it!"

In the background, James saw Frank pouring Alice some punch, just as he said he would. Remus, however was trying to engage Hestia in conversation, avoid dancing and drinking punch all at the same time. A lot of people were walking around with a glass or two of punch and were laughing insanely or tripping over their own feet. The situation, all in all, could only be summed up with one word: comical.

James was about to converse with Sirius when a loud crash was heard from outside of the Great Hall, which was where the Valentine's Day Ball was being held. In stumbled Professor McGonagall(sorry I don't know how to spell this), and the whole room stared. "What's with those stairs today?" she asked, "it seems as if they increase each time I descend them!" James deduced by her disheveled condition, and her slurred speech she had probably fallen down the stairs. James fought to keep his composure, because he knew she had some punch. _Absolutely genius, Padfoot. Absolutely genius...._

A slow song began to play and James noticed the starry skied ceiling, began to dim. He looked around for Lily and found her slowly ambling over to him. She took his hand gently, interlacing her fingers with his, and lead him to the dance floor. Once they reached the dance floor, Lily turned to face him and draped her arms around his neck. James placed his arms around her waist and pulled her close, to the point where there was hardly a gap between them. Lily's cheeks flushed at their closeness and she was more than thankful James could not see her blushing because of the dim light. 

In all of their years at Hogwarts, all of their years fighting and torturing each other, James would have never guessed it would have come down to this. And to think that it started out with one little incident on the train, when James knocked Lily clean off her feet. As they swayed gently to the music in the soft light, James' mind could not help but wander to all their memories. He could see nothing around him but Lily and could not even hear the music, all was perfect and he was practically walking on air....

"I never would have thought it would come to this," James mumbled.

"Hmm?" asked Lily.

James looked down at the ground, and repeated loud and clear, "I never would have thought it would come to this."

Lily smiled and whispered happily, "Neither did I. But I'm glad I did, and you know what James?"

"What Lily?"

"I'm sorry about all the nasty things I said about you, I wish I would have given you a chance sooner," Lily admitted nervously.

"Don't be, I took me seven years to grow out of cursing and hexing people for fun, I'll admit I was a bit immature," said James.

Lily looked at James, "A bit?" she asked sarcastically.

"Okay, a lot. But that's done with now," he said as he pulled Lily a little bit closer.

Little did James know that he would have to eat his words.... 

An irate Malfoy and Snape watched from a distance as the people they hated most, the marauders, danced with "their" girls. Malfoy had his eyes narrowed on Remus Lupin who was awkwardly and clumsily attempting to dance with Hestia Jones. While Snape had his sites on Sirius Black who was charismatically charming Emmeline Jones as they swayed and laughed together. 

"I thought they would have been rather displeased with the marauders' pranks," said Snape.

"Obviously they had plotted against us, Vance and Jones were supposed to look angry at them. That way they could humiliate us by going with the people we hate most and leaving us with rather unfortunate woman," slurred Malfoy, who had obviously indulged himself in the punch. To anyone who wasn't intoxicated and of a stable mind to begin with, it would have been obvious that the whole situation was not a conspiracy against Snape and Malfoy. But the more punched they sipped the more angry they became as they slowly lost grip of reality. Malfoy turned around and eyed the girl he was supposed to be dancing with, while she was not unattractive, she was no Hestia Jones. Angrily, Malfoy crunched the plastic empty punch cup in his hands.

"We cannot stand for this, Severus," he said.

Snape turned and looked at him, greasy hair flying around his face as he vigorously nodded his head in agreement. "Using magic would lead to expulsion," said Snape, trying to formulate a thought and finding it rather hard to do because his head was swimming with alcohol. "But no one ever discussed with us the reprimands for physical inflictions."

Malfoy smirked, "Leave it to you to use your in depth vocabulary when drunk."

Snape nodding feeling the room spin even more, "Well, what are you waiting for?"

The two Slytherins, made bold by alcohol consumption, waltzed over to where the marauders danced. Snape laughed, _how perfect, attack the prey from behind._

Malfoy leaned forward and bravely punched Remus in the back of head, while Snape pushed Sirius with all of his might, causing him to release Emmeline due to being startled. Tackling Sirius to the floor, the two began to roll around on the floor screaming obscenities and punching each other frantically. Remus and Malfoy remained standing, however, and normal taciturn, docile Remus began screaming expletives as his hands found a tight hold on Malfoy's throat. While Malfoy's face began to turn blue from lack of oxygen, Remus was thankful that it wasn't a full moon currently. James and Frank who had heard the commotion came running and found themselves engaged in the fight. James had jumped onto Snape, and a few Slytherins had joined trying to help Snape, thus a furious, frantic, swearing doggy pile was formed. Frank had pried Remus's hands off Malfoy and was beating him to a pulp himself, while Remus battled another Slytherin. One would be surprised how well trained in hand to hand combat they all seemed, considering they were attending a school for witchcraft and wizardry. Lily and Hestia were shrieking their heads off, while Alice ran to fetch Dumbledore. Still others, like Emmeline had decided to use this as an excuse to pick a fight with others females from others houses. Emmeline stalked right up to a Slytherin female she hated, that allegedly had a crush on Sirius and slapped her across the face. This caused the two of them to start pulling hair out, and frantically slapping each other. Pretty soon, almost everyone from the houses of Gryffindor and Slytherin were involved. Hufflepuffs stood there dumbfounded, while Ravenclawes laughed maniacally cheering for the Gryffindors. Professors hurried to the brawl, trying to intervene, but to no avail. 

"SILENCE!!!!!!" echoed a forbidding, powerful voice throughout the Great Hall.

Remus released his death grip on yet another Slytherin, Sirius stopped his fist in midair from crashing in Snape's face once more, Frank turned around from where he was standing, and James jumped up off the ground. An extremely angry Dumbledore made his way to the battle and took in the scene before him. His pale blue eyes flashed dangerously as his eyes scanned each and every student, glaring at them with utmost repulsion. 

"At least no one used magic, like the Cruciatus Curse for example," muttered Professor Sprout to an appalled McGonagall.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS MADNESS?" demanded Dumbledore, whose voice reached pitches none of the students have ever heard before. In all honesty, Dumbledore was quite frightening when angered. Several students turned rather pale, while others' jaws loosely hung open.

Bravely, Sirius Black came forward, "Snape and Malfoy, attacked Remus and I," he stated plainly.

Dumbledore's eyes turned to Snape and Malfoy, who cowered where they stood. Dumbledore observed the two, noticing what appeared to be the beginnings of a black eye around Severus Snape's left eye and a broken nose for Malfoy. Dumbledore couldn't help but wonder about the hand prints around Malfoy's neck either. "EXPLAIN YOURSELVES!" roared Dumbledore and the sounds of several students' teeth chattering out of fear could be heard throughout the room.

Malfoy and Snape couldn't muster up a good enough excuse in the short period while Dumbledore waited, so Dumbledore demanded that the two of them follow him to his office. Defeated, the two followed behind him. Sirius smirked and James smiled, while Remus wiped the blood from his lip. 

"As for the rest of you," said McGonagall, "Don't think you're getting off easy. Detentions for each of you, and probably not just that yet. The Ball is officially over, tomorrow I will be calling each of you to my office to interrogate you and get to the root of the problem. Anyone with serious injuries, report to the Hospital Wing immediately," she took a sip of punch and continued, "As for whoever thought it to be amusing to add Firewhiskey to the punch, I'll deal with you later." Sirius stifled a laugh at this.

The next day...

"Hold still, Remus!" exclaimed Hestia as she attempted to force feed Remus the medicine he was supposed to be taking for his broken knuckles. Remus tilted his head back and let the putrid dark green liquid trickle down his throat, but not without making a disgusted face. The nurse had been up all night, regrowing bones, healing various bruises, cuts, gashes, scrapes, realigning broken noses, regrowing hair for students who had their hair ripped out, and trying to patch up black eyes. All in all, no one who fought escaped without some sort of damage, however minor or serious it might have been.

The Marauders sat at breakfast, James holding a goblet to his large welt on his forehead where someone had punched him with a ring on. Lily, who James, expected to be extremely tempestuous with the whole situation, was actually quite kind. Lily justified it as James being loyal to his friends, although normally that kind of confrontation was not something that appealed to Lily in the least bit. Emmeline kept playing with her split lip, and Sirius sat there silent, feeling very hung-over and feeling the sting as the large gash on his left cheek ached. Frank was in the hospital wing from receiving a couple blows to the head, and Alice was sitting by his bed keeping an eye on him.

Remus cleared his throat, "I hear they still have not found the culprits who stole some of Dumbledore's FireWhiskey and poisoned the punch."

A small chuckle escaped James throat and Lily elbowed him, right where a huge bruise on his ribs was. James winced and turned to Lily who shook her head and glared at him evilly. "It was good tasting punch, though, I'll give you that," she whispered.

"It wasn't my idea, blame Sirius," mumbled James.

Lily rolled her eyes, "But of course, you went along with it. Tell me, James, if Sirius asked you to jump off a bridge would you?"

"What's below the bridge and exactly how high is it?" James retorted, earning himself another elbow to the ribs.

"I think I'm going to have clean you up into a more sophisticated gentlemen, Mr. Potter," said Lily trying to banish a smile.

"Those two words don't even belong in a sentence with the words James Potter," chortled Remus.

"Piss off, Remus," said James, grinning broadly.

Remus didn't respond, but instead took his last dose of medicine and grimaced as he swallowed.

Sirius looked up from being lost in his reveries, "I'd say we won the war," he said grinning as he motioned to the doors of the Great Hall. Everyone turned around to see Snape and Malfoy enter and limp over to their house table. The two of them, to put it lightly, were a mess. Cuts and bruises littered their faces, Snape had a large black eye and Malfoy's nose was obviously broken. The two of them were banged up pretty well, and it looked as if Snape's wrist had been broken and repaired. Malfoy had large hand prints on his throat as well. The Marauders snickered at the condition of their enemies and went back to eating breakfast and talking.

"I don't think you could have won without Emmeline though. Her kicking Snape in the family jewels was one of the funniest things I have ever seen," laughed Hestia.

Everyone had a good laugh at this.

"Or maybe James's biting skills!" exclaimed Sirius. During the fight, somehow, James ended up biting someone.

"Hey it's not my fault that somehow someone's bloody fingers ended up being jabbed into my mouth during the fight and I bit them!"

Everyone once again had a good laugh.

"Hey Prongs?" asked Sirius.

"What?"

"You're lucky that Lily put up with all of this, she must really....like you," mocked Sirius.

James smiled, "Yeah well, she doesn't know about the prank we're pulling on Snape and Malfoy later. Let's just keep that a secret okay?"

The Valentine's Ball served as a prequel for Lily and James' relationship which continued to flourish for the rest of their seventh year.

But they hit a little bit of a bump in the road when Lily found James' pranking journal and found out that the person who had been causing her cauldron to blow up in potions was James. 

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Well there's the bonus chapter! I might add more later, I found this chapter very fun to write. This chapter fits between when James asked Lily to the Ball and the Epilogue!( So technically this is chapter five). Thank you to everyone who has read this story. Please review!!


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